In a nutshell: Hyderabad Biodiversity summit - Week One

Sun, 14 Oct 2012

At the 2010 Biodiversity summit in Nagoya, Japan, Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity agreed the ‘Big Plan to save nature’ with its 20 Aichi biodiversity targets to be met by 2020. Today, the Parties meet again, this time in Hyderabad, India to discuss what progress has been made so far in turning the Big Plan into reality.

Halfway through the meeting we ask Jane Smart, Global Director of IUCN’s Biodiversity Conservation Group, to tell us how the talks are going.

A logjam

We’re at the end of Week One and the situation is a little ‘logjammed’:
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The one thorny issue

So what exactly is the issue that's causing this low point in the talks? It’s money.
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But IUCN is quick to offer concrete solutions to the problem, including getting governments to ‘go green’ and putting a price on nature, which would involve giving a payback to the people who are taking care of it on the ground.
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Climate change vs nature?

Another controversial issue that has emerged during Week One of the talks is a ‘policy firewall’ between the UN Climate Change and Biodiversity Conventions. IUCN stresses the crucial role that nature plays in both helping us adapt to climate change and minimizing its impacts and strongly believes that the two Conventions should be working closely together.
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On the bright side

Apart from the few ‘thorny’ issues, the talks are advancing well, with governments keen to focus on the implementation of what has already been agreed.
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Week Two – Ministers are coming to town

So what can we expect from next week and its high level ‘ministerial segment’?
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